Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday accused the Ministry of Education of passively accepting its curriculum review committee’s decision to retain much of the classical Chinese literature taught in high schools.
The committee on Sunday last week passed a motion for 45 to 55 percent of high-school Chinese textbooks to be on classical Chinese literature pieces.
Kuan blasted the ministry for not clarifying enough that calls for reducing the teaching of classical Chinese literature were made to alleviate study-induced stress and promote diversity by introducing students to more literary styles, rather than out of pro-Taiwan independence political motives.
The ministry stated that the final decision was legal and that it would abide by the committee’s decision, Kuan said, adding that she doubted the ministry would even ask its 12 representatives on the panel to request a review.
Kuan accused Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) of showing “false neutrality” and urged him to be “braver,” as a review is possible if one-tenth of the committee members who passed the amendment requested one.
Under the Senior Secondary Education Act (高級中等教育法), the ministry selects a quarter of the review committee’s members, giving it great influence on the decision process, Kuan said.
The curriculum issue was not a matter of desinicization, but of keeping up with the times, she said, adding that the ministry should be able to defend its stance in face of such accusations.
The ministry should be rational, and understand that students are under great stress and should be introduced to various styles of literature, Kuan said.
The current percentage of classical Chinese is “absolutely absurd,” Kuan said, apologizing for the DPP’s education policy’s inclusion of so much classical Chinese content.
Some netizens said the ruling party would suffer greatly due to the government’s inability to gauge public needs.
Meanwhile, ministry K-12 Education Administration Division head Chiu Chien-kuo (邱乾國) said that discontent stemmed mainly from the passage of the motion without voting.
However, Chiu said that no ministry representative would request a review.
Some members nominated by other parties have stated they could file for a review, but the result would be for the committee to decide, Chiu said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS